Top seeds Suchde, Saumya enter finals

Top seeds Sidharth Suchde and Saumya Karki advanced to the men's and women's finals respectively, in the 68th CCI-Western India Open Squash tournament, without much trouble in Mumbai.

Suchde of Maharashtra subdued the challenge of Ravi Dixit of Tamil Nadu in straight games while Saumya got the better of Aishwarya Kulkarni by dropping only seven points in an all-Maharashtra semi-final at the Cricket Club of India.

Suchde, who won 11-5, 11-5, 11-6, awaits the winner of the second semi-final between no. 2 Harinder Pal Sandhu of TN and no. 3 Gaurav Nandrajog of Delhi in the final.

Defending champion Saumya, who got past state rival Aishwarya 11-1, 11-1, 11-5, will meet Urvashi Joshi in the final. The latter had to put her best foot forward to overcome Alisha Mashruwala 12-10, 12-10, 11-8 in the other semi final.

Saumya also made it to the final of the girls under-19 event, as the top seed, along with Urvashi, seeded second. The former prevailed over N Mayuri of Tamil Nadu 11-3, 11-6, 11-0, while the latter overcame Jui Kalgutkar of Maharashtra 11-7, 11-3, 11-4.